Formaldehyde

What is it?Formaldehyde is an ingredient used widely in manufacturing, including in some cosmetics, personal care products, household disinfectants and detergents as a preservative or disinfectant. Ingredients that release formaldehyde may also be used in these products.

Formaldehyde also occurs naturally in the atmosphere, in food and water, and at very low levels in the human body as a product of metabolism. Additionally, a wide range of human activities, both domestic and industrial, release formaldehyde into the atmosphere. The principal route of human exposure is by inhalation.[1]

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified formaldehyde as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) – having found sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and test animals.

What’s the myth?It has been alleged that the presence of formaldehyde in cosmetic and personal care products puts humans at risk of cancer and skin allergies.

FACT: The mere presence of formaldehyde does not mean that the product poses a health risk.It is nonsense to talk about adverse health effects without considering the level of exposure and the route by which a substance enters the body.

It is a common media (and activist) ploy to proclaim the presence of a scary chemical – a carcinogen in this case – in everyday products. Even more effective is to select products that relate to more vulnerable members of the population, such as children.

Cue “Toxins Found in Children’s Shampoos”[2], or other such headlines.

It is true that formaldehyde is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer[3] and as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[4] However formaldehyde is present at very low levels in cosmetic and personal care products and these levels are considered by regulatory and health authorities around the world to pose no risk to human health.

In fact, the level of exposure to formaldehyde from a whole bottle of baby shampoo is about “the same as a person would be exposed to by eating an apple or pear, in which it occurs naturally.”[5]

FACT: Formaldehyde is regulated for safety in AustraliaIn Australia, formaldehyde is included in Schedule 6 of the Poisons Standard.[6] This sets limits for the amount of formaldehyde permitted in certain categories of cosmetic products as well as requirements for labelling of products containing certain levels of formaldehyde.

Only products meeting these requirements are permitted on the Australian market. This includes products made in Australia and those imported from overseas.

According to the Department of Health and Ageing, the low levels of formaldehyde in cosmetic and personal care products, for example children’s shampoos, are well within the safe permissible levels.[2]

Formaldehyde has also been assessed by the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) in 2006. This was following declaration of formaldehyde as a Priority Existing Chemical in 2002 in response to occupational and public health concerns. The NICNAS report identified that the majority of cosmetic products used in Australia contain less than 0.2% free formaldehyde.

In late 2011, the US Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel concluded that formaldehyde as presently used as a key ingredient in hair straightening products was unsafe*. However, the Expert Panel also concluded that formaldehyde was safe as used as preservatives in cosmetics and in nail hardening products.

The bottom line? You can continue to use cosmetic and personal care products with confidence, knowing that only safe levels of substances such as formaldehyde are present.